Hospital tonight. Two children and two adults. This area of the ozarks being a popular tourist destination. The governor made a point today of saying that many of the victims of this tragedy were traveling here from out of state. You can see the waters of this lake calm behind me now but severe thunderstorms, again, in the forecast here in Southeast Missouri tonight, erin. Horrible thing. Kaylee, thank you. Thanks to all of you for joining us. Anderson starts now. Good evening tonight. An exclusive interview with the attorney for alleged russian spy maria butina. The attorney joins us. Thats ahead. So is the latest on the mystery surrounding what happened Behind Closed Doors when President Trump met Vladimir Putin. Its a mystery because the white house wont tell us or tell you. In fact, were getting more from russia than we are from washington. We begin, though, with the president s former personal attorney and longtime fixer, Michael Cohen. Today, we learned he had made tapes of conversations with his client and others and federal authorities have those tapes. They were seized when the fbi
raided cohen including one from September Of 2016 when cohen, thencandidate donald trump, were talking about paying off former playboy model Karen Mcdougal who as you know alleged an affair with mr. Trump about ten years prior. While Melania Trump was pregnant and even after the birth of their son. Money Above And Beyond an arrange nlt with the National Enquirers parent company, ami, to buy miss mcdougals story and kill. This conversation took place two months before the election, september 2016. Several weeks later, just a few days before the election, the campaign denied any knowledge of the alleged affair, or the National Enquirer deal but thats getting ahead of the story. Lets start at the beginning as told to me exclusively by Karen Mcdougal earlier this year. So tell me about your first date. Our first date, i was told we were going to go to the Beverly Hills hotel for dinner. So he had told me that keith, his bodyguard, was going to pick me up at a certain time, and he did. And then we were driving over to
the Beverly Hills hotel, and keith drove around to the back and he said, we have to get out here because we dont want to walk through the hotel. And at that minute, im li, lik thinking to myself, are we going to a room . Thought we were having dinner at the Beverly Hills hotel. In the actual restaurant. Right. We did have dinner at the Beverly Hills hotel but in his bungalow instead. We had dinner for a few hours. We talked for a few hours. We had a great time. We were getting to know each other. We were talking about this birthd birthday. Then as the night ended, we we were intimate. When you got to the Beverly Hills hotel, and keith said were not going to go through the lobby, were going to go was it to a to a room at the Beverly Hills hotel or a suite or it was a bungalow if h back. A bungalow. Its the one he said he always stayed at, in fact, every time i met them there, it was the same exact bungalow. And he called it the Nicest Bungalow they had. So i guess thats why he chose that one. But thats, yeah, thats where we went every time. Well, fast forward to
november 4th of 2016, the the Wall Street Journal breaking the story of her allegations and the arrangement with the National Enquirer. Spokes person hope hicks telling the journal we have no knowledge of any of this. I asked Karen Mcdougal about it during our interview back in march. Hope hicks has said catego categorically you did not have a relationship, theres no truth to this. When you heard that denial, what did you think . I think somebodys lying and i can tell you its not me. Its a little hurtful, but at the same is time, i have to understand, like, if he were to tell hope hicks that he didnt do it, i guess i understand because hes trying to protect his family, his image, things like that. But it was definitely a little, like, wow, youre going to lie about that . Okay. Now, of course, its possible that hope hicks, herself, was being lied to, but barring that, we now know that four days before the election, the campaigns chief spokesperson was lying to voters. The cohen trump tape shows
candidate trump was made aware of the National Enquirer deal at least that september, two months before hope hicks said they knew nothing about it. Keeping them honest, perhaps we should have known given team trumps chronic trouble with telling the truth. Back in january of this year, of course, spokesman rob shaw said none of the allegations were true. Heres the White House Press secretary in march. Look, the president has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. This case has already been won in arbitration. Anything beyond that, i would refer you to the president s outside counsel. A month later, heres what the president said. Mr. President , did you know about the 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels . No, no. What else . Why did Michael Cohen well, you have to ask Michael Cohen. Michaels my an attorney and
youll have to ask Michael Cohen. Do you know where he got the money to make that payment . I dont know. No. Well, a few weeks later his other attorney Rudy Giuliani said the president did, in fact, pay Michael Cohen. When i heard cohens retainer of 35,000, when he was doing no work for the president. I said, thats how hes retained . How hes repaying it. With a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes for michael. Thats giuliani essentially coming clean on the lie his client and people around him have been telling for months. As for Karen Mcdougal based on what we seen so par, tfar, the has just begun. Joining me now, Maggie Haberman who shares a byline on the breaking story today. There have been two explanations from the president s attorney, from giuliani today, since your story posted. Whats his latest explanation for these conversations . And lets talk fast because the story might change again. So, we were given an initial
explanation in which he indicated this was a separate payment, that this was a payment to mcdougal that was separate and apart from this Arrangement Mcdougal had with ami. He called back later to clarify that this was actually supposed on the tape, what theyre discussing, is obtaining the rights to her story from ami. They are giuliani was strenuously denying that this should be construed as a reimbursementme reimbursement, although some i think would interpret it that way. Hes adamant that it is not. I think that that has legal implications when it comes to the Campaign Finance piece of this. And in his telling of it, it was trump who said, lets do this properly and with a check. And it was Michael Cohen who either had suggested cash or didnt suggest a check in the first place. Someone close to cohen has adamantly denied that version of events that suggested that the presentation in which the
thencandidate was saying, lets do this all aboveboard, is not how this went down. Were obviously not going to know without hearing this. The conversation is short. Its around two minutes long. It cuts off at some point before the conversation is done. There are portions of it that are apparently inaudible in the transcript. And it will, you know, i think it will have to be heard, you know, by any of us to really understand whats being said. But what it clearly does, as you say, is undercut what the campaign told the Wall Street Journal in October Of 2016 which is that they knew nothing about this. Thats obviously not true. Whether hope hicks who made that statement was aware of that, i dont know. Its very possible that dronald trump didnt tell her the truth. It raises questions about the president s credibility at a time when his folks are trying to undermine Michael Cohen. Whats amazing about giulianis both of giulianis explanations. The first one is this would have been they were discussing an additional payment to Karen Mcdougal. Ami was claiming we werent
paying for her silence, we were paying her for the rights to her story, which we then didnt really believe, so we didnt publish it but we also wanted her to a columnist. If they were discussing just giving another payment to Karen Mcdougal, that is certainly pretty stunning. I understand why he would call back then and say actually, no, thats not what that was, even though thats what i just said it was. It was actually they were buying the rights to the story. That doesnt make much more sense. It doesnt make any sense. Donald trump is not a publisher. Right, trump magazine i think lasted for one or two editions and doesnt exist anymore. This would not have been a story you would have seen in it. That is also true. The distinction in the explanations i think has a legal one, as opposed to a personal one. The personal one, either way, is problematic for the president. There is no landscape in which this is a good thing for him. Right. In terms of in terms of what he has said about this before. Frankly, what makes the most
i cant i dont know what specifically is said on the tape because we havent heard it. What we were told by people close to both sides is this is the only and this was another point of clarification, initially we were told this is the only audio of them. Then we were told this is the only one of substance meaning this is the only one that isnt, you know, call me, call me back, ill call you. This is the only one that features a conversation of anything that is material to that Search Warrant on Michael Cohen in the first place in april. And and the your understanding is that the president had no idea that Michael Cohen had recorded him . No. The president did not know that he was recorded. Its still confusing to me how this recording came to be. Why its so short. And so forth. You know, we know that Michael Cohen had a long history of taping people, but, you know, he offer to often told people he taped himself as well as reminders of notes or to, you know, to, you know, prompt him about something
side. So i think what hes doing here, hes trying to spin it as exculpato exculpatory. I can understand in a legal sense why hes saying its exculpatory. Hes saying that, look, all of this shows is that in realtime, the president didnt know that the payoff was happening and they were discussing something after the fact. It doesnt take away from the fact, i dont im not as familiar with the New York City Bar rules that john just referred to, but there is something entirely reprehensible to a client about their lawyer recording them unbeknownst to them. I mean, the wohole idea of Attorney Client privilege, youre supposed to have a client be able to unburden themselves, tell you everything that they want to tell you and get your best advice. If im doing that with a lawyer who then when hes caught in the crosshairs is turning that over, leaking it, or releasing it and commenting on it, that does some great damage to the Attorney Client privilege. And as somebody i dont care how you take what your view is on trump, theres something thats just unseemly about the fact that these recordings, Attorney Client conversations. Jennifer, i mean, you know, the more someone always says, well, id take a bullet for you, id be loyal to the end to you, the less i believe them. I mean, people who generally are like that dont actually have to say that over and over and over again. And certainly, if you really are that loyal, you dont record secretly the person youre talking to. Yeah, it is very strange. I think the president has a right to be angry. I mean, unfortunately, for the president , its not a legal defense. He cant keep the recording out just because, you know, Michael Cohen shouldnt have done it. But thats right. And cohen is now in a position of having to decide whats he going to do . Is that loyalty that would have him take a bullet enough to send him to prison for years and have him do that . Thats what hes deciding now, and i think well know fairly soon here, as soon as charges are filed, which way hes decided to go on that. John, the circumstance
certainly different between what you went through in watergate, do you see parallels in your situation and what Michael Cohen is thinking . There are. He has to make a decision if hes going to come forward and tell the truth. I happened to make that decision when the cover yun wup was goi internally in the white house and broke rank. Hes at that point right now. My advice to him would be to break rank and tell truth. John dean, mark geragos. Coming up, why would russias special Counsel Robert Mueller want to from a woman who once ran a high priced new york call girl ring . Known as madam manhattan. Well ask roger stone. Late e the interview youll only see here, the attorney for the alleged russian spy joins us to talk about his client. To boo. With expedias addon advantage, booking a Flight Unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. Addon advantage. Only when you book with expedia. It was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Specialists focused on treating cancer. Using advanced technologies. And more precise treatments than before. Working as hard as we can doing all that we can for everyone who walks through our doors. This is Cancer Treatment centers of america. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Treating cancer isnt one thing we do. Its the only thing we do. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. Is it to carry cargo. Greatness of an suv . Or to carry on a legacy . Its show of strength. Or its sign of intelligence . In crossing harsh terrain. Or breaking new ground . This is the time to get an exceptional offer on the mercedes of your midsummer dreams at the mercedesbenz summer event, going on now. Receive up to a 1,250 summer event bonus on select suvs. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. Politics, they say, makes for strange bedfellows sometimes. Apparently so do criminal investigations. Late today the Breaking News hit, special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to talk to a woman named krisit davtin davis. She was once known as the manhattan madam who ran a highpriced call girl ring some years back in new york city. Our m. J. Lee has more of the Breaking News. Whats the latest youre
learning about this . Anderson, as you said, we have learned today that special Counsel Robert Mueller has made contact with the lawyer representing Kristin Davis. As you said, shes a woman that some members of the public might better know her as the manhattan madam. She was ran a highend Prostitution Ring in new york city. If you recall, she actually went to jail as a part of the Prostitution Scandal that took down former new york governor Eliot Spitzer. Now, if theres going to be a subpoena that mueller and his team hand down to kristi in, davis, this woman, that has not yet happened. We got in touch with the lawyer who would be Representi Ining hf that happened. Now, we do not know at this point why the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, is interested in talking to thisle wo woman. Certainly a really intriguing and unexpected twist in this Robert Mueller investigation. She also has a connection to roger stone, who was obviously
at a time an adviser on the president s election campaign. Thats right. At this point in time if we were to make an educated guess, that might be one reason why Robert Mueller and his team are interested in talking to Kristin Davis. The two have known each other for a long time. Roger stone is actually the godfather to her child. Davis actually did some work were roger stone including, im told, doing some cl